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As executives, many of us are extremely disciplined. We are masterful at perseverance and getting things done. At first glance, we might think that because we operate well under pressure, we have become immune to the stress of working in such high-tension environments. However, the opposite is true. We are merely callous to it.

Working with clients who perform in the top 5% of what they do, I have found that some of the strategies, habits and beliefs that helped them get to where they are today have also become the prison bars that hold them back from getting to where they truly want to go.

In order to survive, they have adapted to stress and the tension it causes. It runs deep in their neurology, and recent studies have found that it can actually change chemical codes in the brain. By becoming so externally focused, dangerous levels of stress eventually build up. This leads to bad habits, emotional challenges, relationship strain and even chronic inflammation and other chronic diseases.

Let’s take a closer look at the science behind this. As part of the automatic nervous system, the sympathetic nervous system manages your fight-or-flight activity. It speeds up your heartbeat, widens your airways and causes you to sweat and your pupils to dilate in states of emergency. You might think of fight-or-flight as an on/off situation, but it's not all or nothing. It truly operates on a sliding scale, meaning that humans are wired for self-preservation, and this defense mechanism actually produces many layers of chemical responses within the body to help you stay safe. These same responses are not intended for a long duration, but rather to get you out of danger.

Yet, as a driven individual with ever-increasing demands and an overfilled schedule, you can continually remain in lower levels of fight-or-flight. Over time, this results in a wide range of long-term damage.

So, how can you possibly “manage” your stress if you don’t consciously feel it anymore unless it is at an extremely high level? While the autonomic nervous system functions unconsciously, you do have control over it. Here are five strategies to help:

1. Meditation

Meditation helps restore your body to a generative state by quieting the noisy thoughts of your mind as you enter a state of deep rest, one in which your mind is still alert, but peaceful. Deepak Chopra calls this state “restful alertness,” where your body can receive the benefits of restfulness and gradually release the effects of constantly being in fight-or-flight.

Mindful living is living with a conscious attitude of gratitude and compassion for self and others. When you focus on being in the present moment, you can carefully observe thoughts and feelings without judgment. Living in the present reduces stress because you are not fretting about the past or focusing on the future. The result is more caring relationships at home and in the workplace, which leads to a healthier life and a more compassionate society.

When you modify your schedule to include solitude in your life, you create, as Raymond Kethledge and Michael Erwin say in their book Lead Yourself First, “a subjective state of mind, in which the mind, isolated from input from other minds, works through a problem on its own.” Time alone not only allows you to look inward, recover and renew, it also improves your ability to lead others.

Try: Scheduling 15-30 minutes to be alone each day.

4. Breath Work

Slow abdominal breathing can lower stress responses, including heart rate variability (HRV) that is associated with the sympathetic nervous system. (A low HRV tells you when you are in fight-or-flight, and a higher HRV tells you that you are in a more relaxed state associated with the parasympathetic nervous system.) And, it doesn’t even take that much time — you can do breath work in less than 60 seconds!

A mentor is someone who can help you build new constructs and strategies to pursue your goals, especially regarding performance. In order to alter behavior and perform at your best, you need to understand why the behavior exists and how it serves you today. In other words, challenging your perspective rewires how you obtain outcomes. We know we need to reduce stress, but we might not know how. A mentor can help you see what is causing states of fight-or-flight in your life.

Try: Finding a mentor who is a good fit and utilize performance optimization apps, like Whoop.

As high performers, we may have learned how to acclimatize to stress. But, stress exists to help our bodies get back to homeostasis. It does not exist for us to remain there.